My Favorite Easter Sugar Cookies

These Easter Sugar Cookies are the perfect to make on a spring day with your little ones. Moist, thick and chewy sugar cookies that are easy to cut into all sorts of shapes and decorate with frosting!

This is such a great basic sugar cookie recipe for any occasion, and you can switch up the colors, shapes, and designs to match the celebration!

My Favorite Easter Sugar Cookies

Easter sugar cookies are a great way to celebrate this springtime holiday with your family by gathering together in the kitchen. Put on a happy playlist, bake all kinds of fun cookie shapes, and then decorate your hearts out for an afternoon activity! This sugar cookie recipe is pretty foolproof and always ends up chewy, soft, and moist every time with that sweet vanilla-flavored profile that we all love in a sugar cookie!

My only tip for decorating sugar cookies is: the messier, the better! Use all the sprinkles, all the colors, all the accessories! Go wild with the fun options available, from food colored frosting, to all kinds of sprinkles, to colored sugar used to add faces, silly designs, and bright features. My kids LOVE this part, and I love watching their creativity shine in such different ways. Some keep it simple, some get extra imaginative, and I get to watch their playful sides interact with one another. It’s the best, and I hope you love making these as much as we do.

Easter Sugar Cookie Ingredients:

Shortening: I use butter flavored. I don’t use shortening often, but it’s something that makes these cookies extra soft and chewy. Trust me, it’s worth it!

Granulated sugar: This is what gives the cookies their signature sweetness.

Eggs: Cookies need eggs to bind them and help them rise.

Full-fat sour cream: I know, sour cream! It actually adds a great addition of moisture and the acid helps the baking soda activate.

Vanilla: Vanilla brings a lovely warmth to the cookie flavor.

Almond extract: Almond extract adds a nice nuttiness to the cookies.

Baking soda and baking powder: These help the cookies to rise and expand as they bake.

Flour: Flour is the ultimate binder of sugar cookies and helps them to rise a bit.

Salt: Salt balances all the other ingredients and cuts the sweetness just a tad.

Festive cookie cutters: You can use eggs, chicks, butterflies, or flowers.

Use cookie cutters to make shapes, and transfer to a lightly greased baking sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees F. for about 7 to 10 minutes.

Repeat with remaining dough, gathering and re-rolling the scrap dough as you go along.

Decorate cooled cookies with icing and sprinkles; the messier the better.

Tips for the Best Sugar Cookies:

Let the dough chill: It will be too soft to work with if it’s not chilled for at least 30 minutes, and the cookies will spread too much as they bake, losing their shape.

Shortening makes the best cookies: I know it’s not everyone’s favorite ingredients, but it makes the ultimate chewy cookies. Just try it!

The messier, the better: Decorate your heart out and let your creative juices flow! There is no “wrong” way to decorate sugar cookies. Just have fun with it! They’ll taste good no matter what they look like.

Sugar Cookie Design Ideas:

Colored frosting: Separate your frosting into a few different bowls, and stir in different colors of food coloring to the different bowls so you have a few colors to decorate them with. Use a piping bag or a butter knife to apply the frosting to the cookies.

Sprinkles: I might be a sprinkle addict… We have SO many kinds. Get out all your favorites to use on sugar cookies because there’s never too many types of sprinkles on sugar cookies.

Edible eyes, smiles, noses: You can buy candy versions of these to use for bunny faces, or just make faces using frosting and sprinkles!

How to Store Homemade Sugar Cookies

Store homemade sugar cookies in an airtight container with parchment paper between layers so that the cookies don’t stick together. Keep them at room temperature in a cool, dry space for up to 3 days, in the refrigerator for up to a week, or in the freezer for much longer.

How Long Do Homemade Sugar Cookies Last?

Sugar cookies last for about 3 days at room temperature, or a week in the fridge and much longer in the freezer, about 3 to 4 months.

FAQs

What is the best thickness for sugar cookies?

I roll sugar cookie dough out to about 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch. If you like more cookie in the bite, make them thicker, but if you prefer a more even cookie to frosting ratio, go for the thinner cookie! Note: the thinner cookies won’t need to cook as long as thicker ones.

What can I add to sugar cookies?

Sugar cookies are a great basic cookie, but to add a little more texture, feel free to add sprinkles to the dough for a homemade “funfetti” cookie, mix chopped nuts in for a bit of a crunch, or add a 1/2 cup of cocoa powder for chocolate sugar cookies.

Instructions

In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar. Beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.

Add the sour cream and vanilla.

Next, add the baking soda, baking powder, flour, salt, and nutmeg if using, and mix all together. The dough should be tacky without being sticky; adjust the flour as needed until you have a workable dough.

Refrigerate dough for at least 30 minutes (and up to 2 days).

Working with ¼ of the dough at a time, roll it out on a well-floured surface to ¼- to ½-inch thick. Be generous with your flour on the rolling surface since the dough is very tender; it will stick easily.

Use cookie cutters to make shapes, and transfer to a lightly greased baking sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees F. for about 7 to 10 minutes.

Repeat with remaining dough, gathering and re-rolling the scrap dough as you go along.

Decorate cooled cookies with icing and sprinkles; the messier the better.

Notes

I don’t use shortening for a lot of recipes (this and My Favorite Pie Crust Recipe are about the only ones that I use it in), but it helps the cookies keep their shape and the end result is so much nicer. I figure if you’re just eating stuff like that a few times a year, it’ll balance itself out.

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I’m Melissa, and I want to help you feed your family wholesome food.

As a hobby farmer and mom of five, I’m all about keeping it simple in the kitchen. I want healthy meals that feed my family well, and then I want to get back to my (messy) life. Let’s work together to find something yummy for your dinner table.

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